The present invention relates to apparatus for handling delicate workpieces.
Thus, the present invention relates to apparatus for handling workpieces such as semiconductor substrates having the configuration of relatively small plates, the handling of such workpieces being carried out in connection with transfer of a plurality of the workpieces simultaneously to a location such as a work station of a grinding machine, for example.
Semiconductor elements are extremely important and necessary components of modern electrical and electronic equipment. The use of such components in communications, processing of all types, data processing, radio and telephone installations, and above all in space travel leads continuously to further developments in these fields. Important examples of components of this type are transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, and solar elements.
Known semiconductor materials are germanium, silicon, ceramic oxides, sapphire, and compounds of indium and antimony, namely indiumantimonide, or compounds of gallium and arsenic, namely galliumarsenide.
The semiconductor material on which operations must be performed is in the form of a substrate or small thin plate, a so-called wafer, which is formed by sawing such a plate with a special tool from a single cylindrical crystal. Such semiconductor substrates are subjected to further operations such as grinding on one or both sides, or being subjected to treatments such as diffusion or radiation treatments and the like. The handling of these wafer-shaped round thin semiconductor substrates, which must be carried out with large numbers thereof, is accompanied by great difficulties because of the ease with which these workpieces are broken, and at the present time such workpieces are manually handled. These manual operations are extremely undesirable from the standpoint of economy, and even with the most experienced skillful manipulations nevertheless there are inevitably a large number of rejects resulting from breakage.